Hunting ban ends next month

Foxhunting is being allowed to resume in parts of the countryside which are free of footand- mouth, it was announced today.

Government vets have assessed the risk that the disease might spread if hunting with dogs is resumed and decided that it would be safe to relax the ban from 17 December. But in parts of Cumbria, Lancashire, the Welsh borders and North Yorkshire, where pockets of the disease remain, hunting will stay banned.

The one exception is deer-hunting because they are chased over some distance and are highly susceptible to footand-mouth disease. When the disease emerged last February, a blanket ban was imposed on hunting in England and Wales, amid concern that movement of animals risked spreading the epidemic.

Rural Affairs Minister Alun Michael admitted today that vets had given the go-ahead for the lifting of the ban back in September but denied "sitting on their report".

"The reason, and it is a simple reason, why we did not act immediately when we got the veterinarians' assessment is because it is complicated, with a variety of situations and a variety of forms of hunting," he said.

To those who say the Government should have acted quicker he said controlling the epidemic had to be the first priority. "Some people seem to forget the enormous impact of foot-and-mouth on rural communities."